Pull-Through Pocket Sharpener

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veltic2

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Apr 26, 2021
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I see these advertised in knife catalogs and wondered how effective they are. It looks like using one is taking metal off the edge the wrong way. I freehand my knives using india or silicon stones that put teeth in the edge which is what I want. Just curious if anyone has used this type of pocket sharpener and there opinions on their use. Thanks
 
I like them. Lanskey has a little key ring multitool one.

I just use that and a steel mostly and knives come out sharp.

Saves me having to be good at sharpening.

Opinel has a cute little steel by the way if you want the full pocket job.

I have this one.
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And this one.

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Pull through sharpeners that use carbide remove a lot of metal from the knife, and this can be problematic. You do it enough and you’ll turn a chef’s knife into a filet knife.

If size and convenience are the benefit, there are pocket stones out there like Spyderco’s double stuff.

Now if I had a $15 game processing knife and I didn’t care about it and wanted it sharpened in 30 seconds? Maybe I’d use the carbide. But I don’t carry any $15 knives.
 
I have the Smith's pocket pal one with the carbide and ceramic pull-thrus, and the small diamond rod. Been forever since I used it, but never used the carbide part since it basically rips metal from the edge. But the ceramic part works ok if it's not too dull.
 
I used pull throughs many years ago, then witnessed how much they damaged the edge, and shortened the blade life.

A hard pass for me.
 
Pmurt Dlanod said:
Pull through sharpeners that use carbide remove a lot of metal from the knife, and this can be problematic. You do it enough and you’ll turn a chef’s knife into a filet knife.
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This is true of bench stones too.
A vivid case in point is Iron Chef Morimoto. He sharpens his knives before and after every shift (I don't know why both, but his words). He showed a few knives arranged by age. In 4 years that 240mm gyuto gets down to a petty knife.

As for a pull through sharpener saving anybody from having to be good at freehand sharpening, it's more accurate to say it's a way of avoiding learning how to sharpen at the cost of shortening the blade's life (removing far more steel than needed) while giving a mediocre edge (at best).
 
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